The Deers
by thegirls
Summary: Three teenage girls transfer from an American school to Hogwarts when their mother moves them to England in their 5th year. They befriend the Marauders and Lily. Who knows what could happen...
1. Chapter 1

**Dear Headmaster Dumbledore, **

_**You asked for a résumé of each of my three children, Lexi, Rissa, and Artemis "Danny" Deer. I do hope this qualifies.**_

_**They received the following on their fourth year examinations:**_

_**Defense Against the Dark Arts: Lexi, and Danny- E**_

_**Rissa- O**_

_**Transfiguration: Lexi, and Danny- A**_

_**Rissa- E**_

_**Charms: Lexi, and Danny-E**_

_**Rissa-O**_

_**Herbology: A**_

_**Potions: Lexi, and Danny- P**_

_**Rissa- A**_

_**Divination: D**_

_**Care of Magical Creatures: O**_

_**History of Magic: A**_

_**Astronomy: Lexi, and Rissa-E**_

_**Danny-O**_

_**Lexi is also a skilled Quidditch player and has been on the school team since her second year. Lexi is a Seeker, and works very hard to improve her flying skills.**_

_**Sincerely,**_

_**Mrs.. Deer.**_

_**Dear Mrs. Deer,**_

_**I would like to congratulate your daughters on their acceptance into Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Enclosed you will find three train tickets for Platform 9 ¾, at King's Cross station in London , England . You will also find a list of school supplies your daughters will need for the upcoming year. I look forward to meeting your daughters on 1 September and having them as students at our school.**_

_**Supplies**_

_**1. One wand**_

_**2. One cauldron (pewter, standard size two)**_

_**3. One set of glass or crystal phials**_

_**4. One telescope**_

_**5. One set of brass scales**_

_**Books**_

_**1) **__**Easy Switches**__**, by Lark AnRoo**_

_**2) **__**Standard Book of Spells, Grade 5**__**, by Stan Darslen**_

_**3) **__**Potions**__**, by Margaret Bolovwa**_

_**4) **__**Divination Made Easy**__**, by Minnie Egler**_

_**5) **__**Curses and Hexes in Alphabetical Order**__**, Eunice Farblice**_

_**Uniform**_

_**Fifth Year Students Are Required To Wear**_

_**1. Three plain black work robes**_

_**2. One black pointed hat**_

_**3. One pair of protective gloves made from dragon hide for Herbology**_

_**Students may also bring ONE cat OR ONE dog OR ONE owl OR ONE toad**_

_**Sincerely,**_

_**Albus Dumbledore**_

If you happened to live in the apartment complex on the left side of Woody St. in London , England on a lazy August day and happened to live on the fourth floor and your window faced the street you might have glanced through your window to see a very odd sight. On a pink bed with flower decorations in a topaz blue room under a poster of a very sexy soccer player that played for Britain sat three very exuberant girls that appeared to be in the middle of torturing a frog while simultaneously discrediting scientists everywhere who claimed that nothing was faster than the speed of light, while anyone watching their mouths move knew that the speed at which they were talking was much faster. Actually that is not exactly true, because while two of the girls were sitting Indian style on the flowery pink bed, one girl with short spunky black and well blended and fashioned pink hair was constantly jumping up off the bed and talking loudly to her two friends and punctuating every other word with big hand gestures, which was rather unfortunate for the poor frog she held in her left hand.

As I'm sure you have already guessed, these three girls were none other than the Deer sisters. If you knew nothing about these three girls, and instead were just observing them from the fourth floor window in the apartment across the street you would not believe that they could possibly be sisters. The girl sitting closest to the window had long sleek brown hair that was pulled up into a ponytail. She had wide chocolate colored eyes that seemed always to be keeping a secret, and a smooth caramel colored face that held no blemishes, no freckles, no moles, and a way about her that was calming and self assured. Even when she was sitting you could tell she was tall, at least 5'6, when in fact she was 5'8.

Sitting on the other side of the bed was a slightly shorter girl with long, strawberry blonde hair that came to her middle back and ended with gentle curls and stood at 5'5. She had vibrant blue eyes with just a hint of green in the sunlight and turned a dark shade of aqua when she was angry or excited. She also had a million or more freckles that littered her entire body, high cheekbones, and lips that formed a perfect bow shape. Sitting there, even through her sweats and big ice-cream T-shirt you could see her finely toned muscles built from hours on a broom in the Quidditch field.

Sitting between them- actually more often than not _standing_ between them- was a rather short girl with sleek pink and black hair that just barely touched the top of her shoulders and who stood at 5'0. She had deep penetrating stormy gray eyes that gave her the appearance that at any moment she might do something wild and spontaneous, which in truth was her character. She had three piercings in one ear and two in her other and was wearing a midriff that showed off her flat stomach and belly button piercing. While her two companions both had a nice tan from long days in the summer sun playing soccer or Quidditch her face alone remained pale, and in the winter her skin turned a milky white; she had a hew of white to her skin that no amount of time spent in the sun could ever quite dispel. All this and her Irish nose that turned slightly up made her look a bit like a pixie.

As stated above, a mere observer would never guess in a million year that these three girls who looked nothing alike could possibly be sisters. And technically, they would be absolutely right. For it's true that none of them were born from the same mother, or had the same father. Legally, though, because when they were mere babes the kindly Deer folks of Alabama , U.S.A. took these foster home children into their own home, they were sisters. As you may have noticed I have just stated that they were originally from America , but six months prior to this sunny August day Robert Deer finally succumbed to leukemia and died in his sleep on a dreary February morning. Due to financial problems Mrs. Marie Deer sold their farm back in Alabama and, having finally found a job, moved herself and her three adopted fifteen year old daughters to London , England one June morning.

Back in America these three girls had been enrolled in a boarding school for young witches and wizards in Virginia , having come to England a closer school was needed, and hence they applied for Hogwarts and are now sitting on their beds reading and discussing their acceptance letters from Hogwarts. Now we will cease to be ignorant observers from the fourth story window on the other side of the street- for now you are no longer ignorant of these girls and what led them to defying scientists everywhere- and will now be flies on their blue topaz wall that does not blend well with their pink flowery bed.

"This is so cool! We got into Hogwarts! I can't wait!" Rissa, who was usually the quiet one, was practically overflowing with excitement on the arrival of the acceptance letter earlier that day.

"Rissa!" Lexi said between excited giggles, "Tone it down a little. The whole complex probably heard you!"

"I know, it's just, I'm so excited!" Rissa replied, though not quite as loud as before.

"Me too. I hear they have the best Defense Against the Dark Arts classes around." Lexi said; Defense Against the Dark Arts was her favorite class.

"We're going to one of the best magic schools there is," Rissa replied because she loved to learn. "This is so cool!"

"The best part is," said Danny excitedly, "we get to bring Cat, Dog, and Mouse with us!"

"Speaking of which, what the hell are you doing to that poor frog??" Rissa asked Danny incredulously as Danny squeezed the hand holding the frog and the frog's eyes nearly bulged out of his head.

Danny had acquired this frog she so affectionately called Froggy while at the pond only an hour before their letters came. She was bored because Cat -her dog- would not play with her after she broke his leg rough housing with a leaf blower. Even though the vet wizard had easily fixed his leg the week before Cat still refused to come within a ten foot radius of Danny. She was bored, so she took Froggy home, much to her mother's disproval, which she announced very vocally before she left in a hurry to her job and fretted about being late _again. _

"I'm not hurting him!" Danny cried indignantly, even as Froggy started making panicky pained croaking noise and thrashing about in her head and his eyes bulged out even farther.

"Danny, put down the frog." Lexi said solemnly as she treated Danny with one of her most intimidating glares, made scarier by her vibrant blue eyes.

"Oh, all right fine." Danny gave her sisters a pouty glare and without hesitation chucked her dearly loved Froggy out the window and did not bother to glance back at it as it hit the fourth floor window in the apartment across the street and fell to the concrete, hastily hopping away.

"Danny, that wasn't very nice." Rissa chided Danny gently while also favoring her with a very disappointed frown that made Danny look away in a momentary second of guilt.

Deciding that now would be a good time for a change of topic Lexi suddenly blurted out impulsively, "I hope there are some hot guys on our House Quidditch team!"

"I just hope there are hot guys in our _House_!" Rissa responded loudly to Lexi's embarrassing comment.

"Just as long as there are hot guys somewhere on campus." Danny almost yelled.

"_Danny! Rissa! Mr. Redford might hear you! You guys are so loud!" _said Lexi in a whispered shout, as she and the other girls looked worriedly at the door for a moment, hoping the short tempered landlord hadn't heard them talking so loud they were near shouting in their enthusiasm..

"Well too bad if he gets upset; we're leaving soon anyways." said Danny, irritated that the conversation had turned from the topic of boys.

"What if Mr. Redford's nephew is hot?" Rissa said, still thinking of the deranged old man whose fifteen year old nephew would be visiting that night.

"I can't believe he made us clean the whole apartment for only two bronze coins just because his stupid fifteen year old nephew is visiting for a week. He didn't even give us a choice as to whether we would clean or not! We're treated worse than the maids! And paid less!!" Lexi lamented angrily, still remembering the three perfect summer days she and her sisters had spent inside the apartment complex cleaning every single aspect of the building.

"But that is beside the point. I just want a nice hot guy," Lexi said her eyes a flutter.

"Too bad they don't exist; all the _nice _hot guys are sissies, momma's boys, taken by some plastic enhanced model…or are actually serial killers driven crazy from girls constantly fighting over them**."** Danny said with a wistful sigh.

Lexi rolled her eyes, "Danny, not **every single** nice hot guy is a sissie."

"Yeah, but they are usually taken or..."

"Either way we'll see when we get there," Rissa managed to say before they could completely destroy her mind with stupid girl talk.

"You know, there never seemed to be hot guys at Torklaim." Lexi said as an after thought. Torklaim was their old school back in U.S.A. , Virginia.

"Yeah, but that was because we knew half of them for how many years?" Danny added her two cents in.

The conservation dwindled away as the girls became distracted with thoughts of the school they had left for good. Rissa reminisced about her friends, Gabby, Becca, and Cindy. Gabby was really bold and out going, she was a tomboy and had five older brothers, so people knew not to pick a fight with her. Becca was the exact opposite, so quiet you could forget she was even there. But Rissa would miss Cindy the most. She was like America 's sweetheart. Her grades were average and she didn't play any sports, but she had never said a mean thing in all the years that Rissa had known her. Rissa hoped that they would continue to write and hopefully see each other over the summer. Gabby, Becca, and Cindy were to good of friends to loose. All of the Deer sisters missed them.

The girls were brought out of their stupors by the sound of someone trying to open the sticky door. None of the Deer family had quite figured out how to open the door without a struggle. When Mrs. Deer entered her apartment she was surprised to find her three daughters all sitting quietly in the den with opened letters in their hands.

**LATER**

"Mom, do we have to meet this new kid? He's gonna be a total prat, I mean he's the nephew of Ratfart!" Danny complained to her mother in the elevator bringing her and her sisters ever closer to what would almost surely be an incredibly long and boring dinner with the landlord and the new kid who would be staying for a week..

"Danny, don't call him Ratfart." Mrs. Deer scolded Danny sternly, even while struggling to control a small smile that she couldn't quite manage to fully conceal.

"You're just upset because mom made you take out your extra piercings and put on decent clothes." Lexi teased Danny lightly as Danny stuck her tongue out at Lexi in a very immature manner that looked quite silly coming from a seemingly sophisticated girl in a short black dress.

"People should be tolerant of my appearance. Intolerance is what caused the third or second or whatever war thingy.." Danny said in a haughty voice.

"Moving on." Rissa rolled her eyes and instead focused on the staticy elevator music coming from a small speaker in the upper left corner of the elevator.

Rissa, too, was not looking forward to meeting the almost assuredly snot nosed prat who had the great privilege -or curse- of being Mr. Redford's nephew. She would much rather spend the night curled up on the flowery pink bed she shared with her sisters reading a good book. But because mother was late on payment Mr. Redford made her do things like attend a boring dinner party for a fifteen year old snot to give the impression that everyone in the building was one big happy family and having her daughters work as maids for said snot nosed prat. The only good thing about the whole night would be that she would get to finally wear the short brown strapless dress Danny had bought her for Christmas the previous year.

Rissa was brought out of her thoughts by the 'Ding!' that announced they had just descended onto the first floor, and with no time to even sigh for the loss of a perfectly good summer's night she was whisked away to the large dinning room.

Even though her sisters were not excited about the upcoming dinner party, Lexi secretly was. The prospect of a new fellow to hang out with was like a light shined into the deepest dark of the sea. Lexi loved her sisters and all, but after spending almost the whole summer with them, even having to share a bed, she was desperate to see a new face. Even if he turned out to be a snot nosed brat it would still be fun to torment him.

The four girls- remember their mother is attending the party too- stepped into the dining hall fully expecting the worst, and were greeted by a smiling sandy haired boy wearing jeans and a red T-shirt.

"Hi," he smiled wider when he saw the three girls all in their ridiculously small dresses, "I'm Remus. Remus Lupin."

**REVIEW PLEASE!!**


	2. Chapter 2

As expected, the dinner party was a total drag. It wasn't until ten o' clock, when the dinner party was finally over and the girls were allowed to make their escape that the fun really started.

"Hey wait up!" a familiar voice cried from behind the girls as they tried to make their hasty escape back to their apartment.

"What do you want?" Danny asked sharply. She was still upset that Remus had dressed so casually in jeans and a T-shirt and she had been forced to take out all of her extra peircings and wear a dress that almost decently covered her. Though the truth was that she secretly approved of this new character, the fact that he had the gall to wear jeans and a T-shirt to Mr. Redford's dinner party was enough to meet her approval, and making Mr. Redford's eyes bug out to the size of Froggy's, may he rest in peace, and that causing Danny to laugh until milk squirted out her nose, much to the table's disapproval, was just a bonus. But still, the fact remained that she _had _been forced to attend a _very _boring dinner party, thanks to Mr. Redford.

"I, er, just wanted to, um…" Remus trailed off nervously in the presence of three very irritated and sexy looking girls. With a sudden look of fierce determination he blurted out, "Will I see you tomorrow then?"

"If you wish." Rissa said kindly.

Remus flashed her a grin and watched with a small smirk on his face as the girls stepped onto the elevator.

As soon as the three girls were in the elevator- their mother wasn't present because she was helping clean up- Danny pounced on her sisters.

"That was so boring!! I can't believe that even Mr. Redford is that boring!" Danny screeched at her two sisters. The rest of the way up Lexi and Rissa suffered through Danny's lamenting and outraged statements about the dinner party. Even still, when the three girls climbed into bed that night, none of them could help but feel a little excited about their new school and the new boy in the building.

**LATER**

The girls had spent the whole week down in the pond with Remus. They made up games, caught frogs, and attempted to snatch fish with their bare hands. They also made fun of Mr. Redford and the girls delighted in hearing funny stories about Mr. Redford from Remus. When Remus said that he was actually bald and wore wigs, Danny, of course, insisted on stealing his wigs. During the night, when they snuck into Mr. Redford's room- keys courtesy of Remus- Lexi sneezed and when Mr. Redford rolled over and almost woke up, all four of them ran out of the room and spent ten minutes in the lobby laughing until tears rolled from their eyes, as Remus victoriously held up the wig like a trophy and they marveled about them exiting his room alive and with all limbs intact.

But now the week was coming to an end and they would have to say good-bye to Remus. There was to be one last good-bye dinner party and then the next morning he would leave early in the morning before even the birds would be awake. Unfortunately the party was so _boring. _

"Danny, stop poking me." Rissa whispered in an annoyed voice. They were sitting at the 'children's table' in the back corner of the room.

"But I'm so booored. Cant we sneak out or something?" Danny whined with her best puppy dog face

"We can do that when my Uncle is giving his farewell speech." Remus said as he poured himself some punch.

"But won't people notice if you're gone? I mean this speech is kinda for you." Lexi asked pointing out what she thought was obvious

"Nah. It's not really for me. I'm just an excuse for my uncle to advertise how great it is here. You know, how 'kid friendly' this place is. No one will notice if I'm gone."

Just as Remus downed his drink Mr. Redford stood up and cleared his throat.

"Good evening……… We are here to--"

"Now's our chance!" Lexi whispered, and the four teenagers quietly slipped to the back of the room and escaped out the side door in to a little courtyard.

"That was great!" Rissa laughed to Remus.

For a while they just talked about random things, like how great some of the pranks they pulled in the last couple of weeks, but then their talk turned serious as they broached the subject of Remus's impending departure.

"It's gonna be so boring when you leave." Danny whined piteously to Remus.

"Uh…. Sorry?" Remus asked surprised

"Just ignore her. She'll forget about you soon enough." Lexi said smirking

"Should I be offended or should Danny?"

"Both of you should be offended." Lexi said seriously

"Be nice." Danny pouted.

"You girls are pretty cool. I think I'll come back next year."

"You better! If you don't we will hunt you down and drag you here!" Rissa said playfully with a small smile on her face and poked him in the chest.

Remus's laughter was cut short when Mrs. Deer stepped through the door and took a half step towards them.

"I thought I might find you guys out here. Sorry to cut the party short but it's almost midnight and you girls need to get some sleep, and I'm sure you need some too Remus. Say your good-byes now and then go to bed." With a tired, but kind face Mrs. Deer smiled at them, then turned around and went back inside.

For a moment they all stared at anything but each other in awkward silence. Finally Lexi broke the trance and with sure steps she strode towards Remus and hugged him and whispered good-bye. Before Remus even had a chance to look startled, Danny took his hand, squeezed it, and with a smirk on her face she got up on her tip-toes to peck him on the cheek, and without a word she turned away, grabbed Lexi and pulled her with her as she opened the door and went back inside.

Rissa crossed her arms and pouted. "They ditched me!" Then she looked up at Remus and her eyes turned sad.

They were standing very close to each other and Rissa's eyes were level with Remus's nose. Her arms were wrapped around her in an attempt to fend off the cold and she was shivering.

"Well, I guess this is good-bye." Remus whispered to her as he suddenly became aware, and not for the first time that night, how pretty she looked in her strapless brown dress and how much skin she showed. He saw her shivering and the goose bumps all along her tightly crossed arms and a pang of sympathy swept through him.

"But not forever, right?" Rissa attempted a small smile but suddenly she felt like crying. Struggling for control of her emotions she looked at his eyes, and not for the first time, she had the crazy notion that those eyes saw everything, and knew everything about her.

Simultaneously they leaned towards each other and suddenly their lips were touching and they were kissing. It was a soft sweet kiss, and with a soft sigh they pulled away.

Blushing and looking down, Rissa took a half step back and somewhat dimly realized what she had done. Without looking at him she ran to the door, yanked it open, and left a dazed and slightly sad looking Remus outside, the only thought in his head was that he hoped she would warm up inside.


	3. Chapter 3

"OH MY GOSH WE ARE GOING TO BE LATE!! RUN, RUN, RUN! MOVE IT RISSA!" Lexi yelled as she jumped out of the taxi.

"I'M GOING! Now come on Danny!" Rissa shouted back, heaving her two over stuffed bags out of the cab.

Danny looked a her two sisters casually as if there was no crisis at all. Oblivious to her sisters heated glances and hurried movements she lifted her bag from the trunk and fell under the sheer weight of it, still not worried at all about the time. She called to her dog, Cat, and walked far behind her sisters onto platform ten. She glanced uneasily at the wall she was supposed to run through. "I am not running through a wall, I am not running through a wall," she whispered to herself even as she closed her eyes and ran full speed at the wall.

Just as Danny got through the wall the train began to leave. It was a magnificent train.. It looked old, but yet it also looked like it had never been used before, even though it had been used every year for the past century.

"Danny, we have to go. _Now_," Rissa looked back at her menacingly, as if daring her to object.

"No need to tell me twice, now Rissa, MOVE it!" Danny almost screamed as she sprinted past her sister.

"I'm going, I'm going!" Rissa yelled back at her, leaving her luggage on the tracks.

Soon Lexi was safely aboard the train. She glanced worriedly at her sisters. The train was beginning to pick up speed. She turned away from them at the sound of a muffled laughter behind her. She turned to see three good looking boys all trying to hide giggles. She didn't have time to study them as she saw her sisters about to leap on to the train out of the corner of her eye.

WHAM!

"Umph," grunted Danny as she set Cat down safely on the train. "No more chocolate chip cookies for you," she muttered to herself. They were safely aboard the back of the Hogwarts Express train. With a casual flick of her wand Rissa sent their bags, which were still on the tracks, zooming into the train.

As one the girls turned around to address the three boys laughing at them and as one their mouths dropped open and Rissa's face turned a flaming red.

One of the boys seemed pretty surprised to see them too and he almost choked on the pumpkin juice he had been drinking.

"Remus?" Lexi asked in a near whisper.

"You guys know each other?" The boy with black hair and hazel eyes looked at Remus, then at the girls, then back at Remus, silently asking for answers.

"Yep." Danny said perkily, already over her shock at seeing Remus on the train headed towards Hogwarts. "He's our landlord's nephew. Mr. Redford. He spent a week with us this summer."

"You're not supposed to be here!" Remus exclaimed.

Eight curious eyes (Rissa's were still fixed on anything but Remus) swiveled towards him and Remus blushed and made an excuse about having to use the loo and hurriedly left down the hall.

"Would you lovely ladies like to sit with us," James said pointing to a compartment after Remus had gone .

Smiling- well, at least two of them were smiling- the three girls took seats next to the boys.

Holding out her hand Lexi shook hands with the black haired boy and introduced herself and her two sisters and explained that they were transfer students from America entering their fifth year, and that they were sisters but not born from the same parents, so as to avoid any confusion.

The boy with black hair and hazel eyes introduced himself as James and the boy sitting next to him with jet black hair and large gray eyes introduced himself as Sirius and informed them that they were also fifth years.

"What house do you guys want to be in?" James looked at them curiously.

"I dunno. What houses are the best?" Rissa asked, deciding that she couldn't spend the next two hours staring at her shoes in embarrassed silence.

"Gryffindor!" Sirius exclaimed.

Just at that moment Remus opened the door and came in. "I brought cake!" He said cheerfully, and still avoiding Rissa's eyes. As soon as Remus presented his triple layered chocolate chocolate cake two pairs of eyes stared fixedly at it.

"CAKE!" Sirius and Danny screamed at the same time. It seems they had already found something in common. With much ergo they both dove into the cake as soon as Remus set it down.

"I love chocolate!" Danny squealed five minutes later.

"Don't talk with your mouth full." Rissa automatically said. "And you better plan on forking over the last piece of cake."

"One. Piece. Left." Danny said with a hungry look on her face. She was already salivating at the thought of eating the warm milk chocolate icing enveloping the triple chocolate flour delicacy. She then noticed the other person staring at the slice of cake, Sirius. "I'll fight you for it."

"Thumb war" said Sirius with a face that could pass as serious.

"You're on" said Danny confidently.

"You guys suck" Rissa pouted.

"So what's Hogwarts like" Lexi asked James.

"I win!" interrupted Sirius triumphantly. He tore off half of the cake and voraciously consumed the chocolaty delight.

"No!" cried Danny in anguish, as she crossed her arms huffily and glared enviously at Sirius.

Thoroughly exasperated with Danny, Lexi took out a game of exploding snap. "Here," she said shoving the game into Danny's hands, "play with Sirius." Danny and Sirius quickly started a game, and became completely unaware of anything else.

"Do you or do you not want to know about Hogwarts?" James asked eager to tell them about Hogwarts.

"Yes!" Rissa looked at him pleadingly. "I do not want to go there without a clue about where we are."

James spent a good half an hour explaining to Lexi and Rissa about the generals of life at Hogwarts, while Danny and Sirius played a game of exploding snap. Remus, left out of both the game and the conversation, mused over the sudden reappearance of the three girls.

He took the time he had alone to analyze their contrasting characters. To Remus it appeared that Lexi was the social one and quick to anger, while Danny suffers from mood swings and self involvement, but is fun and daring. She skinned a perfect reflection of his best friend Sirius, but it seems they had recognized this even before he had. If Sirius is like Danny, and Lexi is like James then Rissa is like me, the mediator that holds the three together, Remus thought. His thoughts then turned to the last time he had seen Rissa and how she had fled from him embarrassment and their kiss. With a heavy heart he realized he should tell her that the kiss was nothing if he ever wanted her to look at him without blushing or feeling awkward.

Before Remus had the chance to think anymore, a ballistic from Sirius' game of exploding snap hurtled into his peripheral vision. His body ducked on reflex and his wand flew into his hand by the time he realized he wasn't under attack.

"WHAT THE BLOODY HELL?!"

Sirius looked at Remus with an almost sincerely contrite expression, while everyone else just looked at Remus, shocked that he had lost his cool so easily.

"So... do I win?" Danny asked Sirius.

"Grr lets play again."

Remus shouldn't have been surprised that they had resumed what they were doing so quickly (even James had gone back to his lecture). After all it was just life at a school for wizards, and with that thought his last, he fell closed his eyes and lost all conscience after that.

As much as she wanted to, Rissa couldn't concentrate on anything that James said. Her thoughts kept returning to Remus and every now and again she would steal a glance at his sleeping form. She realized that she liked him. A lot. She had felt attracted to him during the week he was visiting his uncle, but she hadn't realize just how much she actually _liked _him. Throughout the trip she kept musing over that, unable to reach a consensus. Eventually her mind drifted back to their kiss and she remembered the feel of his lips on hers, and she finally reached a decision: tell him how she felt.


	4. Chapter 4

Lily Evans sat in her compartment with her friends Gia and Alice, wondering what her fifth year at Hogwarts would be like. She was now fifteen, a young lady, and ready for whatever may happen. This year, she decided, was going to be great despite OWL's. No more screaming fights with the infamous Potter and his gang of bullies. She pinned her long, red hair into a pony tail. She looked around at her friends who were in the middle of a _very _serious discussion about who has a better butt, Sirius Black, or Potter.

Gia was half English, half Irish. She had long, brown, _incredibly _curly hair, light brown eyes, freckles, and was 5 ft. 3. Alice had blonde hair and big blue eyes, a cute face, and while she wasn't super model skinny, she wasn't overweight either. She stood at about 5 ft. 5.

Lily had met Alice on the train in her first year, and Gia after she became the third victim of the Marauders. Lily had been the first when Potter dumped pumpkin juice in her suitcase "accidentally", and Snape was the second when his hair was turned blue on their fourth day.

On the fifth day at Hogwarts Lily was walking down an empty hall when she heard voices from a seemingly empty classroom. At first she thought it was some older kids making out, but then she heard a girl shriek, "Get away from me, Black!" She burst into the class and saw Gia on a desk facing Sirius and Potter. She didn't even bother to find out what the Marauders were doing before she whipped out her wand and failed at stupefying Potter. Instead her curse hit the wall and made a noise loud enough to attract Peeves, and the fun soon stopped as they all made hasty escapes, lest Peeves told a teacher. As Lily and Gia walked to the common room they got to talking, and the rest was history.

With no previous warning, Lily felt as if her bladder would explode if she didn't find a bathroom in the next five seconds. Without even a word she shoved Gia off her seat and made a mad dash to the bathroom. Too much orange juice she thought to herself.

As Lily was returning from the restroom she happened to glance three girls she had never met sitting with three of the infamous Marauders. They looked too old to be first years, maybe they're foreign students, she thought to herself. She briefly contemplated on going in there and warning the three girls of what was behind those hot bodies, but then decided not too because she didn't feel up to dealing with Potter. She turned around with full intentions to tell Gia and Alice about what she saw.

0o0o0o0o0

Lexi looked around the compartment and sighed, this was going to have an interesting year she decided. They had already made friends with some of the hottest boys she had ever met. Such nice butts. And they're boyish features didn't escape her notice either. Too bad Remus and Sirius were taken. Rissa and Remus are so cute together, and Sirius was so much like Danny it was scary.

"... that's why the whole school is full of orange juggling vampires that are allergic to nuts."

"What?!" Lexi was startled out of her contemplation and looked at James in wide eyed child like wonder before she realized with a start that James was teasing her, and her face immediately turned to one of a scowl.

"Just making sure you were still with us," James said with a mocking smile.

"Hey!" Lexi began to protest, " I was paying atten-

Lexi was cut off when a greasy haired kid opened the compartment door.

"I was wondering if you could--oh it's you three." The greasy haired kid said.

"Snape, what are you doing here? Thought you might find your true love, Malfoy, here?" James asked nastily.

"James, just stop." Remus interrupted Snape's reply.

Lexi looked back at the door, but he was gone.

"Who was that?" she asked

"Severus Snape. Greasy little git he is." James said

"And he is in Slytherin." Sirius added as if that confirmed him being a greasy git.

The three Deer sisters looked at each other, each silently wondering if sitting with these boys was the best choice.

"So," Lexi said, hoping to change the subject, "do you guys have Quiddich?"

"Yees," James said as if she were a small child, "I already said that. I thought you were listening."

Their conversation was interrupted suddenly when a short, rather dim looking boy entered their compartment, "Hey guys," he said as he closed the compartment door.

"Hey Peter." Sirius said "Where've you been?"

"I was with Penny." Peter said "We better change, we should be arriving soon." Peter said, quickly changing the subject.

"Who's Penny?" Danny asked.

"Doesn't matter Danny," Rissa said warily. "We have to get our robes on. Now."

Soon the train came into the station and all the students eagerly, and some not so eagerly, piled out. Some were coming for the first time, some were coming for the last time. The Marauders piled into one carriage, as the four of them took up one whole carriage.

Soon there was only one carriage left with only one solitary boy occupying it, and with a slightly resigned air the three Deer sisters piled in.

"Hi Snape." Lexi said as she climbed in.

Snape looked up with a face of half surprise, and half disgust.

Before Snape could protest the door shut and the Threstrals began to pull the carriage.

"Hey Snape," Danny suddenly looked up, "Is Snape your first name or your last name?"

"My last."

"Oh." Danny said. "So what's your first?"

"Severus", Snape said with an unnecessarily loud sigh and a roll of his eyes.

"Hi Severus," Danny said shyly as they entered they Hogwarts gates.

**R**

**E**

**V**

**I**

**E**

**W**


	5. Chapter 5

Lily Evans sat down at the Gryffindor's table with her friend Gia on her right, and Alice sitting across from her. Before she could protest James Potter sat down next to Lily, with Sirius on his left, then Remus, then Peter.

"Leave. Now." Lily said coolly without even glancing at Potter.

"Ah, now why do you have to be that way?" James looked at Lily with a big silly grin on his face.

"Potter, why don't you leave us alone and go annoy someone else for a change?" Gia glared at Potter, hoping they would leave.

"But, my dear," Sirius cut in, "it's so much funner to annoy you guys."

"Funner's not a word Genius." Gia snapped irritated

Before they could continue their argument the hat broke into song. While this was going on, the Deer sisters were having a very different argument. After their carriage had left them in front of the biggest castle any of them had ever seen, Professor McGonagall finally found them, thoroughly pissed off that they had not gone with Hagrid on the boats. Now they were standing with a bunch of little first years, awaiting their turn to put on the hat.

"You were flirting with him." Lexi stated sourly, as if she had a bad taste in her mouth.

For once, Danny had nothing to say in her defense. So she shrugged and started humming a Beatles song.

"Why?" Lexi's question sounded more like a demand.

Danny just shrugged again and kept on humming.

Now thoroughly annoyed that the only thing her sister could come up with was a shrug, Lexi began to rant. "Danny, he looks like he's never seen the sun, he's tall, lanky, and skinny, he has greasy hair, he didn't look like he wanted any human company, he's a Slytherin, and the Marauders don't seem to like him very much!"

The only response she got was a shrug and louder humming.

Rissa decided now was a good time to say something before Lexi got _really_ pissed."I'm sure she has her reasons, Lexi. She'll eventually tell us those reasons as soon as she makes some up."

Their squabble was postponed until later, because Professor McGonagall began calling out names, and all three girls were quieted by their own anxiety.

"ALBOA, HENRY!"

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

"ABBLESTEIN, ZACHARY!"

"SLYTHERIN!"

The Deer sisters looked at each other in eagerness and nervousness. Danny had stopped singing and was looking quite green.

"Don't worry," Rissa assured her sisters, "we'll all be in the same house."

"DANNY DEER!"

Danny stepped up and immediately regretted it. There were so many students! She grabbed the hat and sat down on the stool, reminding herself that every single student had had to put on his hat. Gross. She whipped on the hat and closed her eyes.

_Hmmm..._ "GRYFFINDOR!"

Without really thinking, Danny put the hat back on the stool and nearly ran to the nearest table and sat down in the closest available seat...

When Danny sat down Rissa looked shocked at her sister's nerve... or stupidity. Lexi just rolled her eyes and stepped up to the stage as Danny sat down next to Snape at the Slytherin table, which just happened to be closest to the hat. As soon as the hat touched Lexi's head it shouted, "GRYFFINDOR!"

By now Danny had realized what table she was at, and who she was sitting next to... and had decided it was a good thing... Despite Professor McGonagall's frequent glares and mouthed words that Danny pretended she couldn't see.

"Hello again Severus. Fancy meeting you here."

Snape stared at her, wondering if that required a response. Finally he settled with a shrug and pretending he didn't know her.

"Hey! You're a Gryffindor! This is the Slytherin table! Are you dense?" Some boy, who Danny didn't know yet, shouted at her.

"Who says I have to sit at the Gryffindor table just because I was sorted into the Gryffindor house?" Danny smirked at the unknown boy, but inside her stomach was doing back flips and she was self-conscience of everyone looking at her. She couldn't admit that she had screwed up within the first thirty minutes of being at Hogwarts though, so she forced a natural looking grin and shoved self confidence through every pore in her skin as Lexi put the sorting hat on her head.

"GRYFFINDOR!"

"Hey, isn't that your sister or cousin? She sure doesn't look like you. Don't you think you should go join her at the _**Gryffindor**_table?" Another boy Danny didn't know.

Danny decided to answer with the ever fashionable shrug. Danny then looked at Severus, amused that he was pretending not to know her.

"Ello, mate," she said in a fake Australian accent, "Put er ere!" She stuck out her hand, wondering if he'd shake her hand. He didn't.

While Snape was busy not shaking hands, he noticed a very red faced Lexi fast walking toward him... more likely toward Danny. A few seconds later Danny noticed her too.

"Well, been nice to know you, see you later, maybe not, gotta go, keep in touch, asta livista baby! Bye!" A second later Danny was at the other end of the table busily making room for herself next to a deathly pale blond boy.

Lexi cursed Danny under her breath, at about the same time Rissa sat down and put on the hat that would hold a huge hand in what the next three years would be like.

_Hmmm... Awfully smart and diligent. You like books and learning. Maybe Ravenclaw... _

Please, I just want to be with my sisters.

_It's the choices we make... _

"GRYFFINDOR!"

Rissa took off the old hat and quickly spotted her two sisters, mentally planning their deaths. _Danny... _

Poor Malfoy simply looked at Danny helplessly as she sat down next to him and began humming a Led Zeppelin song. The insolence! So shocking it left him speechless... for a little while.

"Get away from me, you stupid Gryffindor! Before I hex you within an inch of your life, go back to the rest of your fellow dogs, you disgusting, obnoxious excuse for a witch!" He sneered at her, his voice increasing in volume near the end of his sentence.

"That's no way to speak to a lady!" Danny faked being intensely insulted, stood up, and spun on her heel with her nose in the air, and darted away as soon as she saw Lexi getting closer.

"Danny!" Rissa said in a sing-song voice, " Come on, the feast will start soon."

Deciding that eventually Lexi would catch her, and that she would much rather survive the night, Danny made her way to the Gryffindor table, avoiding Lexi. Rissa and Lexi were a few feet behind when Danny sat down next to Alice .

As soon as her sisters got close, Danny asked, "Where have you guys been?" Danny had a big silly grin on her face. Lexi just grumbled and sat down next to Rissa and across from Remus. Danny across from James, and Rissa on her left, across from Sirius. By now the whole school was whispering, sneering, giggling, or laughing, and they _all_ knew who the Deer sisters were.

"Hi, my name is Alice . Don't worry, I already know who you guys are. This is Lily and Gia. The Marauders told us they met you on the train." Alice smiled and shook hands with each of the Deer sisters.

Silence...

"Don't you just love awkward silences?" Danny said, hoping to start a conversation.

"No, bit I do like the Awkward Turtle." Lexi said putting her hands on top of each other and twirling her thumbs

"OH MY GOSH THAT IS SO COOL!" Sirius shouted causing half the school to look at him, the other half (the girls) were already looking at him, and Professor McGonagall to groan, "Wait, what is it?"

"This is the Awkward Turtle. When an awkward silence occurs you do the Awkward Turtle and a conversation is born, as you can see from this example." Lexi explained before Rissa or Danny could interrupt, they did not like the Awkward Turtle

"So, are you guys adopted, or what?" Lily looked at them with interest.

"Adopted." Lexi said proudly. "Our birthdays are pretty close too. Mine's April 26th, Rissa's March 19th, and Danny's is May 13th. No other siblings. What about you guys?"

Dumbledore did not give them a chance to answer, because he had just started his beginning of the year speech.

"Blah, blah,blah, no body's listening because they're really hungry, blah, blah, blah, the school song is really annoying, blah, blah, blah, I'm finally done."

"Danny, chill, he's almost done." Rissa said, hoping she was right.

Shortly afterwards Professor Dumbledore sat down and a magnificent feast appeared on all of the tables. With much vigor, all of the hungry students dug in. Not long after conversations had ceased and eating had begun, four ghosts wandered in to the Great Hall.

Rissa paused long enough to say, "Huh?"

"Hello, I'm Sir. Nicholas. Who are you?" A ghost who had drifted over to the Gryffindor table said politely. He was wearing armor, and had facial hair. His question seemed to be directed at Lexi.

But before Lexi could answer, James asked his own question. "Don't you mean Nearly Headless Nick?"

The ghost glared at James and looked like he was going to drift away, but then Danny had to ask her question too.

"Nearly Headless? How can you be nearly headless?" She asked, extending all of the vowels.

"Like this." Nearly Headless Nick yanked his head away from his neck, with only a thread of skin connecting his neck to his head. He then drifted away, much insulted.

"Gross." Lily and Rissa muttered at the same time.

The students continued eating until...

"WHO THE BLOODY HELL THOUGHT IT WOULD BE FUNNY TO COVER ME IN MASHED POTATOES?!" Lexi stood up red in the face, and covered in mashed potatoes from her nose to her collar bone.

Meekly, James raised his hand and gave her a small smile. Without a word Lexi picked up her stuffing and threw it at Jame's head. He quickly ducked, and the stuffing hit a Hufflepuff girl, who in turn chucked her apple sauce at Sirius.

"FOOD FIGHT!" Danny screamed, and turned around to throw corn off the cob, at some Ravenclaw boy.

Within minutes the whole school, aside from a few Slytherins, were gaily throwing food at each other, while the teachers tried to frantically restore order, and Dumbledore just smiled. A little while later, the food disappeared, and the food fight stopped. Unfortunately, the food remained on robes.

Professor Dumbledore said a few words, entering the Forbidden Forest without a teacher is forbidden, and stuff of that matter. He then sent the students off to their common rooms. The Deer sisters then met all of the Gryffindor students in their year. James, Sirius, Remus, Peter, Frank Longbottom, a boy named Gags (he was very cute in Lexi's opinion), Lily, Gia, Alice, and Penny, who nobody got a long with, except maybe Peter.

The Deer sisters, Lily, Gia, and Alice talked long into the night. The Deer sisters learned that Lily's only sibling, an older, spoiled, Muggle girl, hated Lily because she's a witch. Though Lily was Muggle born, her parents were delighted that she was witch. Gia had one older, one younger sister, who were both witches, and unable to hang out with, because they're annoying. Alice was an only child, and saw little of her father, and her mother dropped in and out of her life. Though she had no siblings, her father had three sisters, each with at least two children under six, and one cousin who was a spoiled ten year old boy. Alice 's family were all magical. Penny had one older brother, and no friends in the Gryffindor house, but plenty in the Hufflepuff house, where perhaps she belonged. She was slightly chubby, had brown eyes and hair, and a rather pouty face.

They also learned a bit about the Marauders. James was a pure blood, with no siblings, and saw little of his parents because they were both Aurors, and Voldemort was keeping them busy. Sirius came from a family that supported Voldemort, and had one younger brother. Remus was an only child, as well as Peter. That was all any one knew about them. They also learned that Gags had three younger sisters, the youngest a first year. Frank was an only child but had a large family, complete with a crazy uncle who had repeatedly hung him by his toes with magic when poor Frank was being too loud.

No one noticed until much later that no one had learned anything about the Deer sisters.


	6. Chapter 6

The first day of school. Lexi was awake fifteen minutes before her alarm went off, and by the time it did she had already dressed and brushed. She soon, however realized that she was not the first one up. Danny was already in front of the mirror, applying a ridiculous amount of orange lip stick. Upon further inspection, she saw that she was wearing an ugly, bright blue eye shadow, and had used at least half of the mascara in her tube. She was not surprised. Danny always woke up early when she was excited. Christmas, birthdays, whatever.

"Are you planning on visiting a children's hospital today?" Lexi asked.

"No. Why?" Danny stopped applying lip stick long enough to glance at her sister.

"You look like a clown." Lexi smirked at her sister.

"Or a prostitute." Rissa chimed in from her bed. Rissa was a light sleeper and though her sisters spoke in whispers and treaded carefully, they still roused her from her sleep.

"I do not! Hmph. I thought you guys were asleep. You're so much nicer and quieter that way." Danny turned back to the mirror and began brushing her short, curly, thick, unmanageable hair.

"Can't say the same for you. Even when you sleep you talk! And kick." Lexi said as an afterthought.

Danny stuck out her tongue, and gave up on her hair, settling for a nice pin and a headband.

"So what's up with the makeup? You hate that stuff." Rissa looked at Danny as if she might have forgotten her hate for makeup.

"Oh, I still hate this face paste we call makeup, but I want to look... impressionable on the first day of school." Danny smiled and pulled her robes on.

Well, she'll sure make an impression, Rissa thought.

BBBRRIIIIINNGGG!!

The other girls woke with a start and many grumbles and moans. Except Lily.

Alice saw Rissa staring at Lily and explained why she was still asleep. "She's dead to the world. Every morning. Even on Christmas. Christmas. For the fifth year in a row we get the fun job of being her alarm clock." Alice smiled and strode to the restroom. After a few moments she came back with a small bucket of water. Still smiling she proceeded to dump the entire bucket all over Lily.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!"

Alice was still smiling as she said, "Wake up Lily. Potter is standing outside the door waiting for you."

"Wha-? Potter? Why's he-? Huh? Waiting? Potter?... POTTER!! What the BLOODY HELL?!" Lily suddenly shot out of her bed with her hand in the position as if she were holding a wand and she were about to hex someone. Then she blinked, once, twice, and realized where she was.

If possible, Alice 's smile got bigger.

Grumbling darkly, Lily shoved Danny away from the mirror, who had just put in big hideous green heart shaped earrings to go with her necklace. As soon as Gia and Alice saw Danny's face they fell into fits of side splitting, shrieking, laughter that made Penny stick her nose out from the bathroom she had just occupied and ask, "What's so funny?", before closing the door again.

Danny joined Lily in grumbling darkly, and watched as everyone scrambled to make themselves look nice, or at least like they had more than three hours of sleep the night before. Except for Lexi. She just put her hair in a sloppy bun and left to breakfast, complaining that all her food last night had ended up on the Marauders.

At breakfast the Marauders had been surprised when Lexi came down with no makeup on and her unbrushed hair in a sloppy bun. When Danny came down, they just howled with laughter. Their bodies were convulsing and their jaws ached from laughing so hard.

"Remus, do you think I look like a prostitute or a clown?" Danny moaned to Remus.

"Nooo..." Remus scoffed between small bursts of laughter.

Remus tore his gaze from Danny and found himself staring at Rissa. She looked so simple, with her hair in pony tail and just a touch of mascara. 'Dignified.' thought Remus.

Penny had gone to sit somewhere else. Despite attempts at friendship, she always insisted that she preferred her books.

Frank Longbottom was sitting next to Remus, only half awake and half aware that Peter was in the process of stealing his bacon. He looked too tired to do anything about the bacon thief though. Gia freely gave her food to Peter, and he graciously devoured her food. Taking his cue from Peter Sirius also gleefully devoured her toast and jam. Poor Gia was too nervous to eat anything anyways.

"Gia," Lily said, "It's only the first day of school. A Monday! You should eat something." Then as an afterthought, she added, "Why are we sitting next to the Marauders anyways?"

"Aw, come on Lils. I didn't do anything." James looked at Lily in earnest.

"Yet. And don't call me Lils." Even as she said that she piled more bacon on her plate and took a swig from her pumpkin juice.

"Hey, we better hurry up. Classes start in five minutes." Remus said.

"Does anyone know what class we have first? And second? Or just the whole schedule?" Sirius gave his almost award winning smile.

"What happened to your schedule?" Peter looked at him expecting an answer.

"I used it as an airplane to follow Snape around all day and say 'I am a greasy git'." He took on a very haughty, proud look.

"OK. We leave. Now." Lily glared at Sirius and left her breakfast on the table in favor of leaving to class with Gia and a reluctant Alice in tow.

The Deer sisters looked at each other, wondering if they should leave too. They didn't have to answer that question though because Remus suddenly shot out of his chair, saying, "We have to leave. Now. Right now!"

All nine students, including Penny, shot out of their seats and made a mad scramble to get to Transfiguration in the next three minutes. As all five students arrived at Professor McGonagall's classroom, they tripped over each over at her door way and lay in a big heap on the floor, staring up at Professor McGonagall.

"Get off the floor!" Professor McGonagall barked sharply, glaring at the nine students on the floor of her doorway.

Embarrassed, and glaring at any student that dared to laugh, the students got off the floor and found seats as far away from the front of the classroom as possible.

Every teacher that morning, in every single classroom, spent at least twenty minutes telling them how important O.W.L.s are, how hard the tests are, why knowing this stuff will be important, and how grueling the work all be this year. When lunch came round, everyone was in need of a reprieve. The fifth years all grouped together at each table, whether they liked each other or not, needing the comfort of knowing that those surrounding them were going through the same speeches, and lectures, and assignments that they were going through. It was not something spoken out loud, but a silent agreement between peers.

The end of lunch came all too soon, and all of the students piled out of the Great Hall, some dreading the rest of the day more than others. Except for Danny. She was in the restroom. As she came out of the restroom, perhaps a little later than she should have in order to get to class on time, she found the hall empty. As she turned to leave, she heard someone exiting the boy's restroom. She turned around and was face to face with Severus Snape. He turned, in hopes of making a hasty escape, but Danny stopped him when she said, "My name's Artemis."

Snape turned to look at her, mostly because he was curious about where she was going with this odd comment, because obviously her name was Danny.

Embarrassed under his scrutinizing stare she hastily tried to explain. "You told me what your first name is. In the carriage. Mine's Artemis. Artemis Diana Deer. But they announced it as Danny yesterday. So I thought it's only fair that you know my first name. But call me Danny." Embarrassed, and surprised about the blush she could feel creeping up her cheeks, she glanced down for a second before looking up again with a small smirk on her face.

Severus looked at her, again wondering if that required a response. He might have said something had not a prefect walked by and told them to get to class.

By the end of the day, the only thing anyone wanted to do was crawl into bed and sleep for half a day. Unfortunately, the professors had assigned a lot of homework. They took "a grueling year" to heart.

"Well, night!" Danny chirped as she made her way to the girls' dormitory. The day was finally over, and Danny had no intention of staying up to do homework.

"No way! If I have to do the work, so do you!" Lexi grabbed Danny and swung her on to a chair.

"Why do you have to do work?" Danny complained to Lexi.

"Because I want to be on the Quiddich team, and I can't attend practices if I'm in detention for not doing the homework, now can I?" Lexi replied curtly.

With an over dramatic sigh Danny pulled out her transfiguration notes and began on her essay. All of the fifth year Gryffindor students sat around the common room fire scribbling furiously on pieces of parchment.

The next day promised to be bright and sunny. If you were outside, and not inside writing essays and snapping at friends because of sleep deprivation. Not that all the students were in horrid moods. Just all of the fifth years who just had a glimpse of what the rest of the year would be like. The only fifth year student in Gryffindor not freaking out or incredibly uncaring about grades like Danny and Sirius, was Alice . Though homework did not worry her, perhaps it was because she had other things to worry about….

James had worries other than homework too. Lily. He wanted her, but he didn't want to give up his popularity and his pranks. Pranking was fun; not only did he get back at other students, but they were fun to plan with his friends, rather than stress about homework and O.W.L.s. Unfortunately, he couldn't figure out a way to have both.

Walking down the Great Hall for breakfast with unbrushed hair and a pair of socks on that don't match, Lexi happened to glance a flyer on the wall for the Gryffindor Quidditch try outs. Friday evening at five, everyone welcome. Lexi smiled to herself. The week was looking up.

Trudging wearily into potions class both Gryffindors and Slytherins groaned as one as they realized which house they would be sharing potions class with. Only two boys were not dismayed as to who were their "potions buddies". Already planning in their heads new pranks, Sirius and James snickered and exchanged grins.

Finally the students were let out of their last class of the week. After the first initial shock of the homework load, the students were coming back down to Earth and had stopped freaking out. Gags now had something new to freak out about. Quidditch tryouts. He was the Captain, and only a fifth year. This was the year with O.W.L.s and he was Captain. Still, he was definitely excited to be Captain. No doubt about that. He wasn't excited about all the loony tunes who thought they could fly coming to the tryouts though. Oh well. Darn school had to let everyone try to prove their worth.

Lexi was also nervous about Quidditch tryouts. She knew she was a good seeker, a great seeker, but she still couldn't calm her nerves. She couldn't even eat dinner. Flying on an empty stomach is not very smart she thought to herself. I'm almost as nervous as Gia...

Gia walked around the tables collecting toads from students in Professor McGonagall's classroom. It was the last class of the day and she was looking forward to the weekend. She was also proud of herself for not embarrassing herself even once in the entire first week of school. Just a little while longer until class is over, just don't trip…. Distracted by trying not to look clumsy in front of the class, Gia tripped over someone's outstretched foot and toads went flying everywhere. Gia began to sit up and realized that she was right in front of where Sirius was sitting. She could hear all of the students laughing and snickering at her. She glanced at Sirius as his head flew back in laughter and his leg pulled back under his desk. She felt her face heat up with embarrassment and a deep hate.

Remus sat in the stadium watching Quidditch tryouts. Alice was sitting next to him. She was an avid Quidditch fan, but couldn't fly very well. Down below was Danny and Rissa, waiting for their sister, Lexi, to fly. His eyes lingered on Rissa as she was bent over reading some Herbology book and her hair flew about prettily in the wind. His stomach always curled into a small little ball when he thought of what he would have to tell her to preserve their friendship. They had not had a chance to talk privately all week, but even though now might be the perfect time, seeing as how Danny was too distracted by the Quidditch tryouts to pay any real attention to Rissa, he couldn't quite bring himself to go down there and lie to her.

Danny truly was avidly watching the Quidditch tryouts, both because she loved Quidditch, and because there were a lot of cute boys trying out. She had watched the Chasers go; James was the best. Then the Beaters; Sirius ruled at hitting balls with sticks. Whether because it involved hitting other people with balls or protecting his fellow teammates, or both, she wasn't sure. Now they were going through Seekers. She poked Rissa, who had her nose stuck in a Herbology book, and watched for Lexi.

Lexi impatiently waited for her turn to fly. Her sisters could play too, but Danny was always in detention, and Rissa wanted to focus on her studies this year. She laughed, remembering how she had made Danny promise not to get detention today.

"Hey!" Lexi snapped out of her thoughts as Gags continued talking, "Are you gonna fly or what?" Gags looked at her angrily.

Without a word Lexi grabbed her broom and walked to the middle of the field. She got on her broom and rose up into the air. Suddenly all of her fears were gone and were replaced by a cool certainty and a feeling of belonging in the air.

Rissa watched as her sister ducked and weaved in the air, watching for the snitch. She suddenly felt a great need to be up there too. Next year she promised herself. In record time her sister found the snitch and came back down to Earth. She smiled, knowing there was no doubt that Lexi would be on the team.

Gags wanted to jump up and down in rejoice that the tryouts were finally over. He might have, except he was bone tired. He cleared his throat and began reading the names that would be on the team this year. "Chasers- James Potter, Ryan Gagliana, and Bred Sherbert. Beaters- Sirius Black and Chelsea Gallagher. Keeper- Laura Garcia. And Seeker- Lexi Deer."

When Lexi heard Gags say her name a big smile spread over her face and her sisters came over to congratulate her. As she walked away with her sisters and Alice, Lexi looked back and saw Gags looking at her with the oddest smile on his face.


	7. Chapter 7

After the excitement of starting a new school year classes were all too soon beginning to feel very routine. Students began to get in the flow of things and fifth years were adapting to the mountains of homework assigned every night. Well, almost everyone….

"Danny, where are you going? You promised that you would get an early start on your Potions essay due Tuesday, remember? We have to get to the library." Alice looked at Danny imploringly.

"_Riiiight… _Well, um, actually, I have detention." Danny grinned sheepishly at Alice and hoped she wasn't about to receive another lecture.

"Again?? With who? What did you do?"

"Forgot some homework, was a disturbance to class, screwed up some potions, skipped a few classes….." Danny mumbled then smiled up at Alice.

"So you're with Professor Slughorn then? Great. I have some things I need you to ask for me about that essay he assigned……"

After Alice finished listing the things Danny should ask Professor Slughorn she left to the library and left Danny alone in the dormitory. She had about ten minutes before she had leave to detention. As Danny changed out of her clothes- it had gotten dirty in Herbology- she mulled over her new found friendship in Alice; she could be so serious sometimes! But for some reason, more than Lily or Gia, she clicked with Alice. Who would've thought? Probably because when Alice let loose she was an evil genius and fun to boot; and Alice found Danny amusing. Realizing the time, Danny dashed out the door, as she was already four minutes late.

Danny walked into the Potions class drenched in sweat and eight minutes late. Even as Professor Slughorn began lecturing and told her to take a seat and pull out a sheet and a quill, her eyes were immediately drawn to the one other boy there, already in his seat and writing lines. Severus Snape. At that moment Danny thanked her lucky stars and grinned at the deathly pale boy who looked up to scowl at her.

0o0o0o

Meanwhile Lexi was at Quiddich practice and her sister Rissa was watching in the stands, also working on some homework. It seemed that Rissa was the only one in the girls dormitory keeping up with the homework. She had been sitting there for close to an hour, but despite herself she was feeling slightly lonely. Lily and Gia were decorating for Halloween, Alice was studying for an essay Rissa had already written, Danny had detention, Lexi, James, and Sirius were at Quiddich practice, and she just couldn't find the nerve to hang out with Remus. She knew what topic would inevitably come up, and every time she thought of what she wanted to say to him her stomach invariably twisted up into knots.

Unfortunately for Rissa Remus _had _found the nerve to come and talk with Rissa, because when Rissa next looked up from her charms' book, there was Remus coming up the stairs and heading right towards her.

0o0o0o

"Lily, what do you think I should put here? Another floating jack-o-lantern or maybe some wall decorations?"

"Oh! What? Um, whatever you think, I'm sure it will look fine." Lily said distractedly.

"Lily, why have you been day dreaming so much? All these past few weeks; it's like you're suddenly from another planet. What's wrong with you?" Gia turned to look Lily straight in the face, and her face demanded an answer. It was the same face she used on her little sisters and brothers when she knows they've done something.

"It's just," Suddenly her face crumpled and she looked like she might at any moment cry, but taking a shaky breath she drove on with her story, "It's my mother. Something's wrong with her. She's sick. She's been getting these weird headaches all summer long. Horrible headaches! She can't move for hours because when she does the pain becomes unbearable. The doctors don't even know what's wrong with her!" Before Gia could offer comments or sympathies, Lily took a hasty breath and began talking again; after weeks of secret keeping, she had absolutely no intention of being interrupted, for fear that if she didn't tell someone everything she might implode, or she might loose her nerve, and say nothing at all. "Her blood pressure's dropped so low we had to rush her to the hospital. Twice! And my sister is as bratty as ever, the only thing she's concerned about is whether or not Mum will be able to come to Mother Daughter Activity Day at her stupid pratty Debutante school and the only thing that's upsetting her is the fact that she now has to do her own laundry because Mum is too sick to even leave bed! To top it all off my dad has spent the last three months basically living in his office and when he _is_ home he just walks around like a zombie!! My poor mom…" Though her voice had been increasing in volume throughout her laments, at the end her voice dropped to a whisper and her face pinched in an effort not to cry.

Then just as suddenly as her fervency had come, it left her. Her energy was spent and Lily sank to the floor in emotional exhaustion and had a distinct feeling of defeat. Before she could begin to feel sorry for herself though, or to retreat into a state of pleasant numbness, Gia's arms wrapped around Lily, and she felt her mood lift slightly.

"Why didn't you tell us what was going on?? Alice and I were so worried about you; you've been acting so strange lately. No wonder!" Gia sat facing Lily and her face was a mixture of anxiety and anger and sadness.

"I'm sorry, I just, I felt that if I didn't talk about it, it wouldn't be real. Talking about it seemed like a sort of betrayal to Mum. I'm so sorry." Despite her earlier thoughts, Lily actually felt slightly better after talking to Gia. She felt tears threaten her again, but she fought them off and smiled at Gia, so grateful that Gia was her friend. She still felt exhausted, but she also felt like a huge weight had been lifted off her chest.

"Come on, let's leave these decorations for tomorrow and go join Alice in the library." Gia said as she stood up, sensing that the subject was closed for now.

0o0o0o

Danny took a seat next to Severus and began writing the lines that Professor Slughorn had written on the board. On the side of her paper she wrote him hi, but he did not glance at her, even when she rather painfully jabbed him in the side. After half an hour of being ignored, Danny was getting rather antsy. Thank goodness Professor Slughorn decided to intervene before Danny did something _really _stupid.

"Students, you can put down your quills now, I have decided on some other form of punishment for your unruly behavior. You seem to be getting rather _fidgety_," He looked at Danny, " so instead of writing lines you can clean all of the pots in the classroom. No using magic, and believe me if you do I shall know, and you can leave when every single pot is so clean I could see my reflection in it. I have better things to do than baby-sit you, but believe me when I say that I have eyes _everywhere._" Professor Slughorn then gathered his things, and without a backward glance left the classroom.

"Well, you heard him, let's start cleaning these pots!" Danny looked all too happy for someone who had just been told to spend the next few hours cleaning incredibly odorous pots, but she couldn't help but be pleased at the fact that she could finally talk to the mysterious loner, Severus Snape.

Still scowling, Snape went to the closet to receive scrub brushes and a bucket. It was not hard to see that he was thoroughly displeased with this arrangement.

"So, what did you do to land yourself in detention?"

"You were there when it happened!" For some reason, this innocent question just pushed him over the deep end, and he was seeing red. "Don't you remember your stupid boyfriend dumping stuff into my pot?? Dragon blood, no less, my pot exploded and I spent the day in the infirmary being treated for first degree burns, and then Professor Slughorn gave _me _detention for three nights in a row!! While you stupid boyfriend spent the day laughing about it!" Severus actually had a flush to his cheeks and his voice was at a volume considered yelling. He had at some point stood up and was now glaring maliciously down at poor Danny, who looked stunned.

"First of all, Sirius Black is _not _my boyfriend." Danny was very sure to enunciate each word and her voice was a low whisper, which seemed wrong to Severus somehow, because Danny was always _very _loud. "Second of all, I was in fact _not _there when this happened; I was playing hooky. So don't yell at me Severus, I didn't do anything." Her face was hard and angry, but she wasn't actually that angry with Severus…

For a while neither one of them said anything to each other. Then something amazing happened.

"So what did you do to get detention?"

0o0o0o0

Even though his stomach was twisting and turning Remus nevertheless did not falter even when Rissa finally noticed him and her face twisted to one of panic or of a trapped animal. God, and even now Remus couldn't help notice how adorable she looked all bundled up in her jacket. There were a few other aspects he also couldn't help but notice.

"Hi." Rissa said as she scooted over and Remus sat down next to her.

"Hi Rissa." Remus said almost shyly. "I figure we need to eventually talk about, you know, that night and all…"

"Yeah, sure, eventually. You know, maybe in a few hundred years or so." Rissa smiled weakly at her own joke, but it looked sickly.

"Look, I know how you feel about the um kiss and all."

Rissa felt her face flush and sweat suddenly dripped down her face as she vainly tried to prepare herself for rejection. Her stomach dropped and she felt faintly nauseous, somewhere in the back of her mind she was telling herself that she was over reacting and that he was just a boy anyways, but it was a very small voice.

Remus bravely went on, " I know it was just an accident, don't worry about it, it didn't mean anything. We can still be friends. Strong emotions and all…" Remus trailed off nervously.

Rissa knew her body had just gone unnaturally stiff, that her face was frozen solid, so it came as a surprise when she immediately replied and reassured him. "Yeah, yeah, good, of course we can still be friends, it was just a mistake after all." She was pretty sure her voice had cracked on "mistake" but she still forced a smile out of her frozen lips and began gathering her stuff, certain that at any moment she would start crying.

Remus had of course noticed the crack in her voice and her stiff frame, but didn't know what to make of it. He saw her gather up her stuff and decided that now would be a good time to go down and wait for James and Sirius, considering Quiddich practice was almost over.

"Well, I'm gonna go wait down there for James and Sirius. See you later."

As soon as Remus was out of hearing distance Rissa got up and stole down the stairs, but instead of waiting for Lexi she turned towards the Forbidden Forest and spent a good hour or so crying on the outskirts of the forest, and in total disbelief that she could feel so strongly for a boy she barely knew.


	8. Chapter 8

The lights were dimmed and the night was pitch black. The walls were black and orange and floating jack-o-lanterns jumped out and scared all the first years. Ghouls and goblins and vampires and all sorts of monsters from your darkest nightmares were packed in like sardines, dancing to a 'Weird Sisters' CD and drinking spiked punch. Prefects attempted to control the noise and beer intake and a group of rowdy pirates were singing made up ballads at the top of their voices and attempting to engage said prefects in a sword fight.

"James, this party is kickin'!" Lexi shouted over the noise to James as she poured herself another cup of punch.

Lexi was dressed as a very sexy elf and had even charmed her ears to look pointy. In real life elves actually look like gods, hence the reason Lexi dressed up as an elf. Danny was dressed very originally: she was a witch. Complete with the big hat, old broom, spider-net stockings, and black boots. Rissa had decided to be a gypsy, much to her misfortune, because now all of the boys flocked around her and begged her for a belly dance. Alice was originally a pink bunny, but at some point her bunny ears had fallen off and she now looked like a pink guinea pig. Lily had dressed up as Queen Elizabeth and Gia was a mermaid; she didn't wear a fish tail, but instead wore green shimmery leggings and a similarly colored tube top.

James was dressed as Dracula, and looked very smooth in his red and black cape, looking _way_ hotter than real vampires. Sirius had decided to go as the grim reaper, Remus was a mummy- though unfortunately his costume was slowly coming apart- Peter was a goblin and Gags was a ghost; he hadn't had time to come up with an elaborate costume, so he had just cut two holes in a white sheet.

Everyone in the Gryffindor House from fourth year and up was at the Gryffindor Halloween party this night. The punch was spiked and everyone, even the prefects, loosened up some, and had some fun. Rissa had even eventually given the boys a belly dance. Lily was dancing and the boys were flirting with any girl that happened to catch their eyes. Gags soon realized he couldn't kiss with a sheet over his head and had decidedly ripped another big hole in his sheet. At some point during the night Alice was kissed by the seventh year chaser- Bred Sherbert- much to his girlfriend's- Janice Hathaway- disappointment. To console herself, Janice made out with Bred's best friend; Michael Sachojoway. Like the boys, Danny was harmlessly flirting with all the boys not in her year, but when Sean Denaro got a little handsy she sprained his big toe when she stomped down on his foot with her big black witch boots while they were dancing. Soon after that Danny left the party, much to Lily's surprise, as she was the only person to actually observe Danny leaving the party.

0o0o0o0o

Lots of romance was going on in the room, and one relationship that was ignited that night was that of Penny and Peter. Penny was dressed as a Greek goddess and Peter, as stated above, was wearing a goblin costume. They saw each other when they both went to get punch at the same time, some time around midnight and a conversation was started.

"Very scary costume _Peettteerrr_" Penny giggled drunkenly.

"Why thank-you." Peter's voice changed from his normally high pitched voice to a forced baritone. "And what are you supposed to be; a Greek princess?"

"No, I'm a Greek goddess, silly." Her words were slightly slurred and she hiccupped happily at the end of her statement.

"I beg thee of your mercy of oh….. goddessy one, for my slight against you goddissiness."

"Hmmm…… Shall I or shan't I forgive this poor goblin? Hmmm...… On one condition…. oh warty one."

"Anything to get back in the good graces of my Greek Goddess."

As an answer Penny leaned forward and sloppily kissed Peter, alcohol making them clumsy and sloppy. Penny and Peter spent the rest of the night together, talking about things that neither of them would remember in the morning and occasionally making out, so drunk that eventually they both passed out together while sitting on one of the dorm's numerous couches.

0o0o0o0o

Another relationship that was started this night was the relationship between James Potter and sixth year Courtney Jeffers.

Courtney was dressed as a fairy; she had big sparkly wings, a short pale tube top dress, and she was covered from head to foot in glitter. She had long straight blonde hair, she stood at 5'4, and had super-model legs. She was rumored to have made out with all the seventh and sixth year boys in Gryffindor and half of the seventh year boys in Ravenclaw. That wasn't true- she hadn't made out with any of the Marauders except Sirius and had no intention of ever kissing Peter- but she didn't disclaim the rumor either.

"Hey Court. How you doin?" It was all too obvious how smooth James was trying to be, but all of his words were slurred, making him seem more comical than smooth.

"Mmmm…. I just love parties. Don't you?" Courtney was perhaps a little tipsy, but she never allowed herself to get drunk, and all her words were crystal clear and well articulated.

"Yeah, love 'em." James attempted to put his arm around Courtney's shoulders but the movement put him off balance and he would've fallen had he not grabbed the table hosting the party treats and when he straightened up he found himself _very _close to Courtney.

"You're so wasted!" Courtney's laugh was like a tinkling of bells.

"Kiss me." James demanded suddenly in an only half teasing voice, his charming smile that had wooed so many girls before her in place. Checking his balance, James put his arms around Courtney's waist and she obligingly leaned forward and kissed him. James barely had time to think how easy it had all been….

0o0o0o0o

Gia looked in disgust at James and Courtney having the longest make out session ever on the couch. Shaking her head, she poured herself another cup of punch. She stood leaning against the wall, aware that if she moved so much as an inch she would probably fall. She didn't look drunk, she knew that. No matter how wasted she was her word were always clear and sharp and if she concentrated she knew that she could probably make it to her bed without stumbling even once; but she was so _tired. _She was too tired to concentrate enough to walk across the room, even though if she did she could finally sleep in her bed. Alice had already helped 'Queen Elizabeth' to the room and had yet to remerge; Gia guessed that Alice had decided to hit the sack too. So she stood leaning against the wall all alone- and not minding that one bit- until Sirius staggered over.

"How come you don't look drunk? I seen you and you drank just as much as the rest of us!" Sirius's voice rose in indignation and he placed one hand above Gia's head to lean against; he looked at her and waited for an answer.

"Sirius go away." Gia snarled at him.

"Aw come on, don't be like that. I know you want me." Sirius smiled tauntingly down at Gia.

"Sirius, I'm not kidding. Go away!" Gia glowered up at him.

"Don't be that way."

Sirius leaned forward slightly, more because he was hammered and could barely keep his balance than because of anything else. Unfortunately, Gia thought he was trying something, and her temper got the best of her. Growling, she splashed the remains of her punch in his face and non too gently shoved him away from her so that he fell back a few steps and fell backwards to the floor. Using the last of her energy, Gia walked across the floor and towards her room without a single misstep or stagger.

0o0o0o0o

Meanwhile, Danny was rushing through the dark halls of Hogwarts, moving as fast as she possibly could in her big black witch boots, and muttering under her breath, "Please still be there, please still be there……"

She skidded to a stop as she reached the library door. She had overheard two days ago that her favorite Slytherin, Severus Snape, would _not _be attending the Slytherin House Halloween party, because he did not much like parties, but would instead spend most of the night until the end of the party in the library as a recluse. Danny had no idea when the Slytherin Halloween party would end, but hoped that it ended sometime after midnight. Her thoughts as she had decided to leave the party were simple hopes that Snape would still be in the library. She did not bother herself with thoughts of consequences or his reaction when she found him, and certainly not of what others might say if they knew that she was leaving the Halloween party to see the friendless brunt of all of the Marauder's practical jokes. It's not right to say that she didn't care about these things; she just didn't care enough about them to mull over them.

She quietly opened the library door and stepped into the spooky looking unlit library. It struck her how odd it was to be in there at night without all of the other students flipping through books and scribbling down notes on their parchment. Suddenly nervous and truthfully terrified at the thought that she might be in there all alone, she called out Severus's name in a slightly shaky whisper. Out of the corner of her eye Danny saw a movement come from the shadows of the back of the library and barely managed to stifle a scream, only letting out minimum noise. The movement she had seen was an annoyed looking black haired boy stepping out to see who had called his name. When he realized who it was, his scowl deepened.

"What are you doing here?" He whispered harshly.

Danny shrugged and actually looked slightly hurt by his unforgiving glare; something that had never dampened her happy-go-lucky attitude before. Perhaps it was because she had actually thought that they had been getting along when they shared detention together a week ago, or perhaps it was because she had actually left a party to seek him out; but for whatever reason her smile slipped off her face. Perhaps for these reasons too, and the added fact that Severus had never actually hurt Danny before with his glares and even his outburst in detention the previous week, Severus felt a tiny bit guilty.

Softening his face a little, but unable to keep the sharpness from his voice, Severus asked again, "What are you doing here Danny?"

Noticing the difference in his face even in the poor light Danny's good mood returned and she smiled and walked towards where Severus was standing with an open book lying at his feet.

"I came to study. What else?" Danny smiled charmingly at Severus, sat down, and pulled out a random book from behind her and then invited Severus to sit down again.

Resigned and even slightly amused, Severus hesitatingly obliged and sat down.

"Isn't there a Gryffindor Halloween party tonight?" Severus asked with only a small sneer in his voice.

"Uh-huh." She smiled that unnerving smile again.

With a start, Severus realized that Danny had left the party to be with him.

"Why don't you just leave me alone Artemis?" Severus's harsh tone and hard scowl had returned to his face. He refused to be emotionally touched by a stupid, obnoxious Gryffindor girl and instead became angry.

Danny flinched at the sound of her real name and her face looked sorrowful. She looked like someone dear to her had just died, but her voice was steady when she said, "If you wish that I would leave you alone than I'll go now and I promise that you'll never be bothered by me again."

"Yes, for the love God, leave me alone!!"

His face was one of intense rage, and hers of infinite sadness. With out another word between them Danny stood up, no longer thinking of her appearance or her costume, and swiftly left the library.

When Danny returned to the Gryffindor Halloween party she was somewhat distantly surprised to find the party still in full swing. She was soon cornered by a drunk Sean Denaro who drunkenly asked her where she had been and claiming to have been looking for her; he had apparently forgotten about the whole sprained toe business. Danny was simply not in the mood to deal with him and roughly shoved him out of her way and snarled something intelligible under her breath as she headed towards her room only to find it already occupied by a fourth year girl. Growling, she settled for Rissa's bed, and spent the better part of an hour trying to sleep, before she finally rejoined the party and drank until she passed out.

0o0o0o0o

Near the end of the party Lexi was surrounded by many a drunk people, herself being one of them, some of them so wasted they could barely walk. Anyone who could was helping the staggering ghouls and goblins to chairs or couches or back up to their rooms. Lexi briefly considered helping out before she was nearly squashed by a boy in a sheet with three crudely cut holes in it. Staggering under his weight Lexi had no choice but to help him to a room. Wrapping her arms around his shoulders, not an easy task considering he was more than half a foot taller than her, she supported some of his weight, again not an easy task because he seemed to be almost twice her weight, and led him towards the first room she saw. Thank God there was an empty bed in there; she hurriedly dropped him into the bed and disengaged her arm from his shoulders. As she was about to straighten up his sheet slipped off and Lexi suddenly realized who she had just helped to bed. Reaching up, Gags lightly kissed Lexi on her cheek and slurred a thanks Lexi before falling back on the bed and passing out. Holding her hand to her cheek, Lexi rushed out of the room, blushing and nearly tripping over Sirius, who was still sprawled out on the floor.

0o0o0o0o

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	9. Chapter 9

Winter was knocking at the back door of Hogwarts one chilly November evening when for the first time since Halloween all of the fifth year Gryffindor students were not out at Quiddich practice, attending a club meeting, in detention, or doing endless amounts of homework in the library. Instead, quite by chance, each student had ended up in front of the Gryffindor fire doing an endless amount of homework. Admittedly, some were more successful than others at making a dent in their homework...

"Rissa, can you help me with my potions essay? Professor Slughorn said that if I get another P he'll give me a detention and I have Quiddich practice tomorrow." Lexi chanced a glance at her older sister, who in turn treated Lexi with an exasperated glare. "Please?" Lexi gave her best pleading, hopeless look.

"Ah, fine. What do you need help with?" Rissa dramatically tossed her hands up in the air and scooted closer to Lexi, as Lexi began to give Rissa a laundry list of her issues with love potions.

Danny too was working on homework. She was reading for transfiguration when her arm began to itch. With her entire being focused on the one task of understanding transforming inanimate objects into living plants, she didn't notice her irritated arm and the boy across the common room unsuccessfully smothering giggles until it felt like her arm was on fire, at which point she unglued her eyes from her book, took a long look at her flaming arm, now twitching and bright red under some sticky substance, and screamed.

Sirius couldn't control his laughter as Danny screamed and ran to the restroom, where she was apparently trying to drown herself in the sink. Tears rolled down his face as he fell off the couch to the annoyance of the rest of the students who were deciding whether to glare at Danny or Sirius.

"Sirius, you are so immature." Penny looked at Sirius as if in the hopes that he might drop dead if she only glared hard enough.

The rest of the female population in the room were preoccupied with Danny though and paid Penny and Sirius little mind. Lily, being the closest to the restroom and not tied down by books and parchment, quickly came to Danny's aid, who was busily turning the Gryffindor common room into the Gryffindor pool.

"Sirius what is this stuff??" Lily called despairingly to Sirius as she frantically tried to scrub off the sticky burning substance she had accumulated on her hands when she tried to help Danny.

By now almost everyone was on their feet and slowly making their way to crowd around the restroom and the four girls who completely blocked the entrance. Sirius even crept closer, all the while claiming he didn't know how to get rid of what he called 'liquid fire'. When at the mention of the name he had given his concoction and several wands were pulled out and pointed at him, Sirius hastily added that he had experimented on Snape first and it was harmless, the burning effect wears off in a few minutes.

A very undignified shriek growl was heard from the flooded restroom when Sirius mentioned experimenting on Snape and Sirius quickly retreated back to the couch.

"Lily!" Gags suddenly barked from behind an entourage of girls. "Turn off the sink. Water's not doing anything but drenching the carpet."

Almost reluctantly Gia, Alice, Rissa, and Lexi allowed Gags to approach Lily and Danny. Seeing Gags's uncompromising expression, Lily briskly turned off the faucet despite Danny's protests and followed Gags out of the restroom. Gags dragged Danny by the arm and ordered her and Lily to sit. As the other girls compared bossy Gags to chill Gags, James noticed the wet carpet he was standing on and focused on magically air drying the floors of the restroom and common room.

"Bloody hell, but you girls can cause a commotion." Gags sported a murderous face as he pulled out a salve used for broom burn from his bag and shoved it at Lily and Danny.

Danny and Lily wasted no time staring and smelling the suspicious looking green goo before spreading a glob all over their hands and arms. Gags then proceeded to shoving Sirius off the couch before taking up his studies again.

"Thanks Gags!" Lily smiled graciously at Gags as her arm stopped burning, though now it emitted a very peculiar odor.

"Yeah, thanks!" Danny chimed in before turning to Sirius with full intentions to give him a piece of her mind using a few choice words and her wand. Fortunately for Sirius though, Danny was interrupted by Frank.

"Hey! Guys, did you read this yet?" Frank emerged from the now sparkling clean restroom holding an only slightly water damaged copy of the Daily Prophet with a picture of Fudge on the cover smiling through the glare of camera lights and flashes under the headline, **Ministry Declares War on Voldemort.  
**  
"Well, good!" James cheered from the other side of the no longer sopping wet room.

"Oh, yeah, I forgot that I left that in there." Lexi glanced up at the newspaper in an expression akin to boredom.

"I can't believe they actually declared war on that egotistical maniac. Shouldn't the Aurors be sufficient enough to take care of him?" Penny scoffed from her seat in front of the fire.

"It's probably just a publicity stunt, right?" Peter's eyes shifted nervously from Penny to James, as if waiting for one of them to tell him what his opinion should be.

"Whether or not it's a publicity stunt, Voldemort needs to be taken care of." Lexi looked challengingly at Penny.

"Don't call him Voldemort, his name is Tom Riddle. He already thinks he's a god or something, we shouldn't glorify him." Remus's face pulled into a small crinkly smile as he looked at Lexi.

"But do you really think he's such a huge deal?" Rissa looked curiously at Remus, but it was Gags who answered her.

"Of course he's a big deal!" Gags looked angrily at Rissa.

"Hey!" Lexi retorted, coming to her sister's defense, "it's not like we know all that's ever happened in England!"

"Don't listen to him Rissa. This will all blow over in week when the Aurors catch up to him. Just you watch." Penny stated with a sneer intended for Gags.

"What are you guys talking about?! Do you understand how dangerous he is? How many followers he has? They should've declared war on that prick ages ago!" Sirius burst out explosively, all traces of his former humor gone.

"You would know!" Gia exclaimed angrily at Sirius. In the fraction of a second it takes to comprehend danger, Sirius had his wand out and pointed at Gia. Sirius probably would have hexed Gia black and blue if Danny hadn't already had her wand ready and pointing at Sirius during the entire exchange of opinions.

"Aguamenti!" Danny shouted exactly a half second before Sirius could hex Gia. Danny smiled as a jet of cold water shot out of her wand and doused Sirius.

"Hey!" Sirius and James chorused. Sirius slowly took a breath and lowered his wand so that it no longer pointed at an angry looking Gia. James on the other hand still looked angry enough to kill and his body shook with anger as his trembling wand stayed pointed at Gia. Danny was fully prepared to douse them with more water, but a look from Rissa told her it wouldn't be a good idea. James opened his mouth, an unhuman sounding snarl emitting from his throat, but before he could utter a word Lily did something unexpected.

"James, maybe it would be a good idea if you just relax and sit next to me." Her voice caught somewhere between scared and confident, but the calming quality of her soft tone made James pause to look at her, his ace still an angry expression of hate. Her arm shaking, she hesitantly placed her hand on James's wand arm and pushed it down and away from Gia. Her hand gripped his wrist more firmly as she pulled James away from the fight that had nearly happened.

At about the same time Remus called to Sirius and Alice grabbed Gia and dragged her to the girls' dormitory. Just as quickly as it had started, the fight was over.

"That was fun." Remus remarked dryly as he sat down again and picked up his homework.

"Hey, don't worry, I'll clean up the mess." Rissa said to James, referring to the puddle left by Danny's hex.

"Danny!" Sirius barked, suddenly remembering her again, "You understand how dangerous Voldemort and his Death Eaters are, right?" Sirius's eyes bore down at Danny, anger belied his every face muscle and warred with the slight pleading that shadowed his voice and eyes.

Danny looked up at Sirius and for a moment she could almost forgive him everything, but then as she raised her arm to tuck a stray hair back in place she was reminded of his prank and who he first tricked, and thoughts of forgiveness left her. "Voldy doesn't scare me. In a week he'll be old news." Danny sneered at Sirius, her eyes matching his, flame for flame.

With that, Danny strode off angrily to the dormitory, where Rissa soon followed, having dried the carpet. Sirius sat fuming and bristling, his eyes deciding between shock and anger, while Remus and Frank announced they too were going to hit the sack. Penny also packed her bag and left. Peter followed suit and went to bed, followed by a disgusted looking Sirius. At last, the only people left in the common room was Lily, Gags, James, and Lexi.

"Well, I better get to bed too." Lily looked down at James, her voice and face almost betraying concern.

"You don't have to leave." James smiled cheekily at Lily, and placed his arm on Lily's shoulders, pulling her closer to him.

Lily made a noise closely resembling a snort, and rolling her eyes she shook off his arm and headed off to the dormitory. James heaved a big sigh when Lily left and looked at Lexi and then at Gags, who was still furiously scribbling on a long piece of parchment.

"Well, night." James said almost cheerfully, and he then went off to bed too, in better spirits then the night warranted.

Finally only Lexi and Gags were left. Simultaneously they both decided it was time for bed, and muttering their awkward good nights, they packed away their homework, stealing glances at each other until the lights were snuffed and the last thud of the closing door echoed in the empty common room.


End file.
